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IWSG: Back on the Horse

(But what if I fall off again?)

What am I insecure about right now? Easy! My new book comes out in TWO DAYS! On August 5, Evernight Teen will release Changers: Manifesting Destiny and I am, of course, simultaneously exuberant and terrified. While I think this book has the potential for a wide audience, I felt equally excited about my previous book (The Fall and Rise of Peter Stoller) only to watch it flounder despite all my best efforts to promote it.

What if that happens again?

I keep telling myself that Manifesting Destiny has wider market appeal. It’s YA fantasy. Peter is more of a niche book, more literary (editors called it “upmarket espionage”).

Then again, YA fantasy is a crowded market . . .

Aaaaagh!

I can only do my best to spread the word and hope readers find and enjoy the book. With that in mind, here it is:

Sixteen-year-old Cee has a hopeless crush on her best friend Marcus. Unfortunately for her, he’s gay. In the wake of Marcus’s older brother leaving home to join the Aerie, Marcus has become increasingly distant. Then, when Cee discovers she has a troublesome dragon named Livian living inside her things grow even more complicated.

Marcus urges Cee to go to the Magi to have Livian removed, but the more used to Livian Cee becomes, the less certain she is about letting him go. Should she change her natural self for the crush who will never love her anyway?

Question of the Month (found in the IWSG Newsletter): What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

As an aspiring writer? So the very first thing I wrote once I knew I wanted to make that my career? Hmm. I’ve known I wanted to do some kind of writing for most of my life, and I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. But the first time I wrote something with an eye toward getting it published, it was fan fiction and I was sending it to a zine. (Back before fanfic was online—yes, I’m that old.) And it did get published in a zine, and then the zine did another issue that was devoted entirely to my work. I got invited to conventions as a guest fan author, and it was great fun and a bit bemusing. I miss that sometimes. The zine community was so connected, and while I think it’s great that the Internet has widened the doors, I don’t feel as connected any more. (Well, and now I write “real” books and don’t read much fan fiction. But I think cutting my teeth on fanfic was not a bad thing. It helped me hone my skills.)

Then as an undergrad getting my screenwriting degree, my final project was an X-Files spec. Which is like fan fiction in script form, really. That is, of course, collecting dust.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group posts the first Wednesday of each month. Find other insecure writers and/or join forces here.

10 thoughts on “IWSG: Back on the Horse”

Congrats on the upcoming book release! Sounds to me like with each book you publish, you’re learning more and more what to expect and how to go about selling your work. In my opinion, that can only be a good thing.

Thank you! Yes, I started out writing stories for my younger best friend—she always wanted new stories about favorite TV, movie, and book characters, so that’s what I did. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as “fanfic” until I went to college, and I thought, Oh! So that’s what I’ve been doing! It really was a good way to practice my writing skills without feeling like I was risking too much, if that makes any sense. Then later I was able to begin formulating my own original characters and stories.